The Orissa government is upping the ante against the Union ministry of environment & forests over its decision to cork mining in the Niyamgiri hills, the site of Vedanta’s bauxite mine.
In a 30-page rebuttal (including annexure), B P Singh, special secretary to the government of Orissa’s forest & environment department, has asked the inspector-general of forests under the Union environment ministry to reconsider its decision to cancel clearance for Stage-II of the mining project.
The environment ministry had raised several issues in a 20-page letter on the cancellation of the Stage-II forest clearance. “In our letter, we have reported the factual position on the proposed mining lease area. We have also stated that if the government of India imposes additional conditions, they can be complied with,” Singh said when contacted by Business Standard.
On December 22, Orissa Steel & Mines Minister Raghunath Mohanty had said in the Orissa Assembly that there were no tribals living in the Niyamgiri reserve forest area. Singh’s letter to the inspector-general came a day after Mohanty’s statement in the Assembly.
The letter (a copy of which is with Business Standard) highlights that the matter concerning Forest Rights Act (FRA) violations had been investigated by Orissa’s ST &SC development department, the nodal agency for implementing the provisions of the FRA in the state, four months after the Centre rejected the clearance given to Orissa Mining Corporation to mine the Niyamgiri hills for Vedanta’s aluminium refinery at Lanjigarh.
Singh’s letter pointed out that the proposal by user agency IDCO to withdraw the forest diversion proposal involving 58.943 hectares of forest land, including 28.493 hectares of village forest land, for Vedanta’s alumina refinery project at Lanjigarh was accepted by the environment ministry in 2005.
The forest diversion proposal was then allowed to be withdrawn on several grounds. They include gramya jungle jogya land in the alumina refinery area being demarcated and protected at the project’s cost along with providing free access to the people belonging to neighbouring villages.
But Singh’s letter now puts a question mark on the use of land by the villagers in the wake of the environment ministry’s decision.
“In view of the observation of the MoEF regarding this gramya jungle jogya land within the refinery complex, IDCO/the project proponent may be asked to file forest diversion proposal in respect of this patch of forest land. In that case pending forest diversion for such forest land, the access of local villagers to the land under question will continue,” the letter said.
